The Clash At Hahmpin
The Clash at Hahmpin was a battle fought by the Iron Bears and their support forces against the Orks which controlled the Hahmpin System. This was the first battle fought by the renamed VIth Legion, and the first of the Tricendian Conquests. Background The collapse of human civilization at the hands of Old Night had led to slaughter that defies any attempts at estimation. Although some civilisations would manage to survive the initial fall and even retain some stellar travel, many human societies found themselves exposed to the predations of opportunistic xenos. Only scattered records exist of humanity's dealings with the other inhabitants of the galaxy during the Dark Age of Technology. Of great debate are the interactions between humanity and the Eldar, who are known to have possessed a powerful empire of their own during this same time. Far less occluded were the encounters between Man and Ork. While the nature and details of the first incident in which these two races met remains unknown, every piece of history affirms that there has been nothing but war and antagonism. Any human spared by the greenskins were destined for a brutally short life as a slave. It was this fate that awaited the people of the Hahmpin system. Situated at the edge of the Three Fires, it has been posited that it was settled by the civilisation which had previously occupied the subsector. During the Dark Age of Technology, mining colonies had been established on four of the six worlds to feed rare minerals towards the rest of humanity. When Old Night struck, the people of Hahmpin found themselves alone. Worse, their defenses were crippled by a localized rebellion of their cyborg armies that led to the destruction of Hampin Four, which had functioned as the system's defenseive linchpin. Roughly a century before the Iron Bears set their sights upon it, Orks invaded the system and claimed the mines for their own. Having no desire to do the hard - and more pertinently, non-violent - work of mining, the human population was kept alive solely to continue the operations. It was a miserable existence as the people were regularly brutalised and starved, less to keep them submissive than a consequence of the Ork’s thuggish nature. The Coming of the Bears This state of affairs lasted for centuries, until a VIth Legion scout ship arrived at the edge of the system. Despite approaching cautiously from the very edge of the system, it was soon forced to flee the approach of the Orks, now ruled by a Warboss named Spine-Rippa. So, used to the weakness of his human slaves, Spine-Rippa thought nothing of this distraction save for the welcome promise of fresh violence. The Ork's former assumption would be swiftly corrected by the arrival of the 4th Fleet. At its head was the Dragon of Autumn, flagship of the Primarch Daerr'd. This was to be the first campaign by the newly renamed Iron Bears under the command of Daer'dd, who was the most recently discovered of the four Primarchs leading the Crusade at the time. Unlike some other Legions, which were radically altered by reunion with their primogenitors, the VIth Legion's character changed little with Daer'dd's arrival. This is not to say there was no substantial change. As with his "elder" brothers, Daer'dd brought distinctive changes to his Legion’s aesthetic. Gone was the traditional grey that the Legion had worn since the Unification Wars. In its place, black and copper dominated as the Iron Bears were steeped in the culture of the Three Fires, signified by the bear claw that they wear to this very day. Although the Astartes would in time acquire a new lexicon of ranks and formations, at this stage the changes to their organisation were largely cosmetic. In their Primarch, the Legion found their existing traits only amplified. From the prodigious size to the affinity with technology, Daer'dd was a mirror to his sons, and his humours matched theirs. The one change that affected the VIth's spirit under his command was an intensified vigour that pushed them farther and further in war as they attempted to live up to their gene-sire's expectations. Nonetheless there were tensions which went with this transition, and Daer'dd resolved to defuse them, welding together the old and new in the furnace of battle. This new vitality was on display throughout the campaign, beginning with the void war. It is well documented that Ork ships are designed primarily for short-range combat, often less than three thousand kilometres from their targets. This is less about utilizing destructive close-range fire as opposed to entering ideal ramming and boarding range. Every Ork ship, despite their wildly varying shapes, was outfitted with a prow in the shape of a leering Ork head that served as their primary weapon, geared toward berserk engagements fought at close range. Despite their total lack of subtlety, they were not to be disregarded. Many Imperial warships were lost to such charges. Standard Imperial Navy doctrine continued the eons-old practice of engaging Ork warships at a distance, where superior discipline and technology could do its work. Such tactics would see the Ork ships whittled down with minimal losses in the void, but risk giving them time to rally their surface defences. In what might have been a pleasant surprise to the Orks, Daer'dd completely eschewed this strategy. Declaring that too long had the people of Hahmpin suffered at the hands of these foul xenos, he intended to eliminate the Ork armada and begin planetfall operates within a mere few hours of translation. Some of his commanders, notably the Terran veterans, were uneasy at the prospect, but Daer'dd won them around as he elaborated on his plan. In the weeks between Hahmpin's rediscovery and the arrival of the 4th Fleet, Daer’dd ordered a series of modifications to his vanguard, some finished only as the fleet readied for its final Warp entry. On his instructions their shield generators had been modified, projecting voids with an amplified resilience about their prows. Despite their point of translation, they made sure to advertise their presence. Upon sighting the Imperial warships, the Ork scrap-fleet quickly gathered its forces and moved to intercept them. Some records suggest that the Iron Bears already outmatched their foes at this stage, but such matters could hardly deter an Ork. Offering only cursory fire as the distance between the two fleets rapidly shrunk, the Iron Bears waited until the opportune moment. Right as the Orks brought their engines to maximum burst, the Iron Bears countered with their own maneuver. As the Orks reached the Mandeville point Daer’dd ordered his remaining ships to translate, bringing the bulk of the fleet into realspace behind the Orks. From there, the 4th Fleet split into two. Battle barges and troop carriers sped towards the planet as the rest of the fleet turned to strike the Orks' rear. Ork captains desperately attempted to turn their vessels to face their enemies, but greenskin shipcraft and piloting does not favour manoeuvrability or defensiveness. As per their orders, the Imperial ships targeted the weapons of their enemies before carving apart those ships that survived the initial attack. The Orks’ cramped formation ensured that many ships took comrades with them as they exploded, and their fleet was reduced to molten slag with remarkable speed. Their bloodlust left the world’s orbit all but uncontested. Spine-Rippa was not aboard the fleet. Caught off-guard, he had been in the midst of gathering his horde when the first stormbirds entered the atmosphere, including Daer'dd's personal transport. However, instead of launching an immediate assault against the surprised Ork defences, the Iron Bears cleared a landing zone six kilometres from the largest city. There Daer'dd deployed half of his Legion, making no advance on any of the Ork positions. Instead, the only offensive Imperial action were a series of orbital bombardments targeting the Ork airfields. This forced Spine-Rippa into sending everything he had into the air to avoid their utter destruction. The urge to fight drew them into the skies above the plains. Here they found interceptor wings descending upon them, along with bombers dropping timed-explosive bombs into the mass of Ork craft. Their numbers already crippled by the earlier bombardments, the Ork air forces were shredded. Despite these swift successes, the Iron Bears' land forces made no move other than to organize arriving elements into a growing, cohesive whole. It was from here that Daer'dd issued a challenge to Spine-Rippa. The Primarch would allow the Warboss to gather every greenskin on the planet into a single mob to do battle with. To make good on his promise, Daer'dd sent his orbital support away, leaving his forces alone to face the green tide. Spine-Rippa likely suspected a trap, but his Orkish instincts prevailed - as always - in favour of the biggest possible fight. In truth, the Iron Bears who were not planet-side with their gene-sire were making way to the other planets in the Hahmpin system. There, they began operations to root out Ork infestations as the last of the Orks' scrap-armada was destroyed by the fleet. It would take Spine-Rippa three days to gather every bit of his might on the outskirts of his city, never knowing his stellar empire was being dismantled due to the data-djinn and jamming apparatus employed by the Iron Bears in orbit. All the while, Daer'dd and his sons - drawn from his closest companions from Huron and the toughest of the old Terran companies - dug in and waited. At their side were the most powerful Knights at Daer'dd's command, although other mortals were absent. Even for the Daughters, the brunt of an entire WAAAGH! threatened to be ruinous. This was a trial that the Bears must endure alone, save for the mighty walkers. As the last of the Orks on Hahmpin Prime assembled, the gestalt Waaagh! energy of the greenskins ran riot among them. Fears of a cunning ploy faded as the Ork numbers swiftly outpaced the Iron Bears. The invaders had deployed just 30,000 warriors against over a hundred times that number of Orks. The fact that these Orks had never faced Space Marines before only increased their battle-hunger as they wanted to test themselves against these "Nob-sized 'umies". This frenzy reached fever pitch as the last greenskins ran into the Ork camp. From the lowliest grot to Spine-rippa himself, the Waaagh! suffused them. The Warboss formally declared a WAAAGH! but in truth, it was beyond his power to steer his horde, as all rational thought was driven out by the desire for violence. The Iron Bears and Knights held their ground, patient in the shadow of their cannons, as the fourth day dawned. The xenos hollered, revved tank engines and gleefully fired their guns despite being out of range. The Bears waited in silence. When the foremost Orks closed to two kilometres, Daer'dd responded with his own guttural roar, a challenge taken up by the rest of his sons. The Legion let loose with artillery, displaying its own eagerness to end the xenos threat, no matter the odds against them. When the two forces closed within range of small arms' fire, too close for the artillery to target them, Daer'dd sprung the trap that Spine-Rippa had once feared. Abruptly, the guns began to rise, revealing themselves not as static emplacements but Predators and Whirlwinds modified with anti-gravitic plates. Now their fire was loosed directly into the greenskin ranks, and whole packs of the aliens became chunks of meat and scrap metal. Clustered mines detonated in rippling explosions, disabling ramshackle tanks. The Orks' rear elements were vaporized by orbital fire as the 4th Fleet, which had returned to orbit after the horde assembled, abruptly shifted the odds in favor of the Iron Bears. Ork casualties soared into the tens of thousands under the continual orbital bombardment. Yet, at this critical moment, Spine-Rippa had lost any inclination to fall back. If the Ork horde now retreated, it would have expose itself to a bombardment they could not counter, and all the while the Iron Bears would be tearing into their lines. The Orks quickly reasoned that the safest place was in hand-to-hand with the Iron Bears and charged forward. The Iron Bears charged as well, with Daer'dd leading from the front and their tanks lowering toward the fray, the better to avoid heavy weapons fire. The armies met, with the Iron Bears taking an early advantage as they smashed through the Ork forward lines. Here the quality of Huronian arms and armour, coupled with VIth Legion strength, was unveiled. Yet the true revelation was Daer’dd’s might. No opponent endured the weight of his blows, and his claws parted tank armour as if it were paper. He was a magnet to the mightiest Orks, and thus he was their doom. Tanks he overturned, walkers he simply dismembered. The Iron Bears pressed the assault as they reaped through the greenskin menace. All the while, fleet support carved through more of the Ork army. Despite seeing his horde halved in the span of twenty minutes, Spine-Rippa would not concede the fight; carnage only emboldened him. The Warboss sent orders to spread out his horde and to maneuver around its smaller Imperial adversary, predicting that the bombardments would not risk hitting their own allies. Spine-Rippa's tactics were sound, remarkably so for an Ork. Any forward momentum would be arrested as Orks attacked first from the flanks and then the rear. The bombardments ended, true to his judgement. In a matter of minutes, the Orks would envelop their foe. Victory seemed to be slipping away from the VIth Legion. But Daer'dd had anticipated the Warboss’ scheme, and his countermeasures were already in motion. The bombardment ceased, only for a shadow to fall across the battlefield as thousands of objects - drop-pods and bombers - broke through from orbit. In an instant, the Orks' envelopment was reversed as the depleted horde was now surrounded by a thin black line of Astartes, with gunships quickly reinforcing the initial drop forces and bringing scores of tanks with them, before rising again to rake the foe with gunfire. Further reinforcements marched from landers; Army divisions and the newly consecrated Daughters of Daer'dd. But the mightiest landers touched down close to the Warboss' stronghold, carrying Titans of the Legio Auris and the Knights of Houses August and Blintrubas. While ten of the thirty Titans immediately began to target the Orks, the rest turned their guns on the distant fortifications instead. Vastly undermanned, breaches a hundred metres wide each were opened in the walls under the guns of Auris. Their formidable taghmata, accompanied by three companies of Iron Bears and 10,000 Tricendian Auxilia, raced ahead to confront the meagre garison that lingered. Daer'dd's force dealt with the threat of encirclement with perfect simplicity - they simply kept going, bulldozing a path through the bewildered enemy to reach their brothers and using grav-predators to cover their rear and evacuate those warriors too wounded to walk. Once this was done, the Bears turned about, and a fist of black metal closed around the Orks. The ten god-machines of Auris not committed to the city came on, the Knights racing ahead in four spearheads, each five strong. Two of these flanked Daer'dd and his elite warriors as they plunged back into the fray. At the climactic moment, Daer'dd reached Spine-Rippa, both warlords grappling with adamantine gauntlets. In a grimly poetic reversal, the Primarch disarmed his foe with two savage blows before ripping the Warboss' own spine from his body. The Orks were promptly routed, most turning on one another. The encircling force was such that not a single greenskin escaped. Attacks on the many settlements were carried out even as the main battle raged, small forces of Bears and Daughters breaking open the prisons and arming those slaves able to fight. In four days, Daer'dd had successfully exterminated the entire Ork presence where more traditional strategies would have taken weeks and caused severe collateral damage. The battle firmly established Daer'dd's reputation as a highly capable and bombastic chief of war, worthy of standing beside his brothers, while the Iron Bears were proven as a far more powerful fighting force than they had been before. The people of Hahmpin celebrated their freedom and welcomed the Iron Bears as their liberators. Daer'dd, seeing people deprived for centuries of self-governance, did not hesitate to enfold Hahmpin into the Three Fires. Administrators, materiel and other resources were shipped in, and within a few years the system was almost unrecognisable. Defensive outposts were built and factories rose quickly; the people knew comfort such as their ancestors had never dreamed of, in exchange for the fruits of the mines. A second tithe was greeted as a signal honour - regiments would be raised from Hahmpin, and the finest recruits would take their place among the Bears and Daughters. The Hahmpin Emberguard would become highly regarded among the forces of the Crusade. The campaign served to cement the bonds between the two halves of the VIth Legion, as well as between the old guard and the auxiliary forces which the reunion had brought. Daer'dd went so far as to amalgamate those squads and companies which had been severely depleted, mingling Terrans with Tricendians. Hahmpin was the first of five campaigns fought by the "new Sixth" to complete the Three Fires realm, forging a Legion ready to take its place at the heart of the Crusade. Category:C Category:Great Crusade Category:Imperial Campaigns